#1571 - Emily Harrington

Emily Harrington (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan (0:15)

What's happening? You seem very normal, and that's what always stuns me about people who do insane things. Like, they're just, like, Alex Honnold, I've met him a few times, had him on the show a couple of times.

Super normal guy, but does what you do.

Emily Harrington (0:33)

I would argue Alex isn't as normal as me.

Joe Rogan (0:35)

Oh, really? How so?

Emily Harrington (0:36)

I don't know. You've met him.

Joe Rogan (0:40)

I think he's normal.

Emily Harrington (0:41)

He's pretty normal.

Joe Rogan (0:42)

He's very mellow.

Emily Harrington (0:43)

What he does is exponentially more dangerous than what I do, I would argue.

Joe Rogan (0:48)

Because there's no ropes at all.

Emily Harrington (0:49)

He doesn't use ropes. I do use ropes.

Yes.

Joe Rogan (0:52)

Listen, it's dangerous. What you do is dangerous.

Emily Harrington (0:56)

We'll get there.

Joe Rogan (0:58)

Tell people what you did, because it's pretty crazy.

Emily Harrington (1:01)

So I did what's called free climbing. I free climbed a route on El Capitan, which is a 3,200 foot cliff in Yosemite National Park. And I did it in under 24 hours.

Joe Rogan (1:14)

That is a long way to go. 3,200 and...

Emily Harrington (1:18)

It's something. 3,200 feet is what I say. I think it might just be like a little more than that.

Joe Rogan (1:26)

When you're halfway there, Emily Harrington becomes the first woman to scale El Capitan via its notoriously difficult Golden Gate route. Why is that route more difficult?

Emily Harrington (1:37)

Well, okay, so...

Joe Rogan (1:38)

Is it route or route?

Emily Harrington (1:40)

I don't think it really matters. I say route.

So essentially, El Cap is this giant cliff face. And there's hundreds of routes up El Cap, different pathways you can take. And right now, there's currently only like 15 ways to get up it via free climbing. Free climbing being using only your hands and feet to ascend and a rope in case you fall. And I chose the route called Golden Gate, which is more difficult than the route Free Rider, which people are very familiar with because that's the route that Alex Honnold free soloed, meaning he climbed it without a rope.

Joe Rogan (2:17)

Yeah, that seems insane. So you're less insane than him.

Emily Harrington (2:21)

Oh, yeah.

Definitely less insane than him. Alex is a dear friend of mine, but there are some things I don't understand about him.

Joe Rogan (2:28)

Yeah, I don't know if he understands those things about him.

Emily Harrington (2:31)

No, I mean, I have an enormous amount of respect for him, but what he does is truly remarkable.

Joe Rogan (2:39)

You bonked your head while you're doing it too, huh? I could see the mark on your forehead.

Emily Harrington (2:45)

Yeah, and that's actually the second time I hit my head trying to do this.

Last year, I had a really bad fall, wound up in the hospital, full concussion, the whole thing. This time, it was slightly less serious, but maybe more dramatic, because it happened way higher up on the wall.

Joe Rogan (3:04)

Ooh, how high were you up?

Emily Harrington (3:07)

2,800 feet, I'd say, like almost to the top. It was a whole... It was very dramatic.

So the day was actually going really well. I've been trying to do this for a few years now. I would say three years I've been working towards this goal.

And I'd actually done the route in 2015 over the course of six days. And I really wanted to do the same route in 24 hours.

Joe Rogan (3:33)

Can I stop you there? When you do it over six days, do you sleep on the route?

Emily Harrington (3:37)

Yeah, that's how most people climb El Cap. They sleep on the wall. It takes like five to seven days or so.

Joe Rogan (3:42)

That seems more sketchy.

Emily Harrington (3:48)

It's different, because there's a lot more logistics involved, right? Like imagine you have to like live in the vertical world for days on end. So think about everything you do, like from when you wake up to when you go to bed.

Joe Rogan (3:59)

Including pooing.

Emily Harrington (4:00)

Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan (4:01)

You have to poo vertically?

Emily Harrington (4:02)

Yeah, we use like, we use wag bags or like, you know, little like plastic bags. And you like go in that bag and then you put it in another bag and then carry it with you.

Yeah, you put it in another bag. You put it in another bag and then you like hang it below everything. And you take it up with you. And then you like, you take it, yeah, you don't leave it.